- From: Jamal Mazrui <empower@smart.net>
- Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1999 17:23:30 -0600
- To: <basr-l@trace.wisc.edu>
- CC: <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>, <thatch@us.ibm.com>, <chrisg@tsoft.com>
I agree! I like the simplicity and effectiveness of that approach for skipping navigational links. Whatever can be done to address this problem is appreciated, however, since it poses one of the biggest efficiency drains/usability problems for people who cannot visually identify where the unique content of a page actually begins. Regards, Jamal On 1999-03-28 basr-l@trace.wisc.edu said: The ACB (www.acb.org) was the first, to my knowledge, to place a local anchor at the top of their page, "skip over navigation links. " Following that link places the user at the "lead story." We are integrating this in the new version of our site (www.austin.ibm. com/sns2) and recommending it everywhere we can. This idea of "skip avigation links" is the best and simplest accessibility idea I have heard in a long time. It makes a HUGE difference. Jim Thatcher IBM Special Needs Systems www.ibm.com/sns thatch@us.ibm.com (512)838-0432 Scott Luebking <phoenixl@NETCOM.COM> on 03/27/99 09:06:01 PM Please respond to basr-l@trace.wisc.edu cc: (bcc: James Thatcher/Austin/IBM) Hi, A complaint that I've heard from various blind web page users is that they often have to read through all sorts of navigation links before they can get to the "meat" of the page. This means that they can be less efficient than their sighted counter-parts. (Since I'm of the school of thought that accessibility must include efficiency, I believe that this is an important aspect to consider for web page accessibility.) Dynamic HTML is becoming more popular for web pages. I figured it might be interesting to use dynamic HTML to improve the efficiency of blind people navigating through a web page. By incorporating features of dynamic HTML, I re-wrote one of BART's web pages so that the navigation bars are invisible. This means that there are much fewer links to read through. Two links are provided to show the navigation bar. One shows a graphic version while the other shows a text-only version. If you would like to take a look at this version of the web page, the URL is: http://members.aol.com/criptrip/alt_bart_page.html There are some interesting benefits to the approach. The page becomes much simpler to read for blind people and people with certain types of learning disabilities. More screen real estate is freed up. The pages are easier to write since less effort is needed to find visually pleasing ways to include links. The pages can look less clutered. There might be some problems to this approach. Some screenreaders are not up to handling dynamic HTML. Some non-disabled may not want to do an extra mouse click to see the navigation bar. Lynx users may have a problem with dynamic HTML. Let me know what you think. Scott Net-Tamer V 1.11 - Registered
Received on Monday, 29 March 1999 16:24:32 UTC